From his position behind the plate, senior Pat McMahon did not have many opportunities to lay out and make a play over the last three years.
So when McMahon, who played first base against Michigan last weekend, had to dive for a grounder, he had some difficulties.
“I kind of just flopped on the ground and looked like an idiot,” he said. “I got a lot of jokes from the team about that one.”
McMahon has started the last five games at first base for Northwestern (6-16, 3-1 Big Ten) and is one of the five players coach Paul Stevens has penciled into the lineup at the position this season.
With shortstop Jon Mikrut and third baseman Michael Phelps graduating after last season and first baseman Mark Ori’s selection in the MLB draft, Stevens has been looking to his players to fill the holes by learning new positions.
“Losing Mark Ori was a huge loss,” Stevens said. “That’s your No. 3 or 4 hitter for the last few years and a tremendous first baseman, and now you’ve got to try and replace him when you didn’t think you were going to lose him as a junior.”
Junior Caleb Fields also is testing out a new position this season.
After playing mostly second base and a little shortstop, Fields is the team’s every day third baseman this season.
“It’s a totally different angle and the ball’s on you a lot quicker,” he said. “I played my summer season at third for the most part, so I’m getting more and more comfortable with it.”
Fields has committed nine errors this season and his fielding percentage is down from .927 in his first two seasons to .800 this year.
“I’m pleased with how they’re doing,” Stevens said. “Am I content with it? No. Not even close. But they keep working their tails off and keep getting better.”
BACK TO BASICS
With his team taking three of its first four conference games, Stevens stressed the importance of reinforcing the basics to continue the streak.
“We need to work on pitching, fielding and hitting,” he said. “Nothing surprising, nothing unusual. Just trying to make sure that we take care of the fundamentals.”
While the team’s pitching and timely hitting helped tame the Wolverines, the most glaring weakness from the weekend series was the team’s fielding. The Cats made seven errors in four games, but Michigan was only able to push across two unearned runs.
Despite the fielding issues, McMahon said he felt that the team played with a consistency that was lacking earlier in the season.
“It seemed like when we were losing, one game we’d pitch well and we wouldn’t hit well. And we’d hit well one game and we wouldn’t pitch well or play defense or something,” he said, “It just kind of came together this weekend. Baseball’s a streaky game. Hopefully, we can just roll with it.”
HOME COOKIN’
NU has not played a home game since May 22.
The 22-game road swing that kicked off the Cats’ season took them to places like California, Florida and Virginia and left them with a 6-16 record and a case of jet lag.
Stevens said the team is excited for its home opener this Friday against Indiana.
“It’ll be nice not to have to get up at a hotel and ride on a bus or a plane,” he said. “But it’ll be a little unusual because we’ve only practiced on it one time so far. We’ll see how it goes.”
NU is 43-30 at Rocky Miller Park over the last four years.
“When we were in California and we were struggling a lot, it was a little bit lonely,” Fields said. “It’ll be nice to get back home.”
Reach David Morrison at [email protected].
